Rare Book Monthly
A Shakespeare First Folio Comes Up For Sale
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The provenance of this copy is most interesting. It belonged to the Rev. Dr. Daniel Williams around the beginning of the 18th century. Williams was a leader in the Protestant Dissident movement at the time, a man about whom little is known of his youth, but who arose to considerable significance in the theological arguments of the day. It is not certain where he obtained his first folio, but he purchased the library of another dissenter, Dr. William Bates, who died in 1699, and it is likely this copy was in that collection. Bates was born two years after the first folio was published, so while he obviously did not purchase it new, he likely was one of the earliest to hold it.
In his will, Williams made provision for his library to be turned over to a trust for public enjoyment. He died a wealthy man, leaving 7,600 books to the trust, and lots of money for other good causes. Williams was married twice, and apparently both of his wives had money, which may explain how a minister ended up with a substantial estate. The trust he formed in 1716, officially known as the Dr. Williams Trust, is to run for 2,000 years, so it does still have another 1,700-plus years to go. In order to provide funds for maintaining the library and other projects, as well as reducing insurance costs, the Dr. Williams Trust has decided, after possessing this copy for almost 300 years, to put it up for auction.
The Williams copy has some fairly heavy annotation. These notations evidently give some insight into how a contemporary, or near contemporary reader viewed this work. As such, they provide some useful interpretive information, though I'm not sure this is quite as beneficial to the copy as the folks at Sotheby's seem to feel.
Sotheby's expects the first folio to "fetch" £2.5-£3.5 million. That comes to roughly $4.5-$6.3 million in U.S dollars. This estimate does not include buyer's premium. It is based on the last first folio to sell at auction, a copy auctioned by Christie's in 2001 for $5.6 million. Perhaps they will be right, but given the rise in prices for ultra-premium material, I would not be at all surprised if this one goes flying past the estimates. After all, this is just about the most collectible book in the world, and it is almost unobtainable. Until and unless the Folger Library starts flooding the market with their collection (the Folger owns an incredible 79 copies of the first folio), there will continue to be far more potential buyers than sellers for this essential and magnificent classic. Don't go to this auction expecting a bargain!
